Trick or Treat

It's Halloween! So much candy, so little time. After naptime, we threw on Cora's costume (Reed had napped in his) and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Cora didn't exactly feel like getting her photo taken.

Grandma and Grandpa with the Red Power Ranger

She had more important things to do...

...like eat toddler cheese puffs.

Next stop was to visit the cousins in South Elgin. Reed had so much fun running house to house with the older boys.

Porter, Jackson, Reed, Cora, and Mason

Cora, on the other hand, didn't mind hitting the houses alone. She walked the whole way, stopping at about every fourth house or where ever she liked the decorations. She definitely understood that she was receiving candy and was quite independent in her quest for it.

Hang back, Mom! Don't embarrass me...I got this!

One part sugar-high, one part elation of their big candy haul

Halloween 2011 goes down as a success. No trouble with bedtimes tonight thankfully.

Trunk or Treat

Last week, Bob had a conference in Bloomington from Wednesday to Friday so we all headed down and Granny picked us up and brought us to Greenville. We had a great couple days at home. We visited Great-Granny Maher one day, we did a bit of scavenging for Halloween costumes so we could "Trunk or Treat", and Saturday we spent the day with Willa and Owen, the birthday boy who just turned 7.

We had many photo-worthy moments but only captured the Halloween festivities. I didn't even think about packing the kids costumes since Halloween was the following Monday. We searched the attic for the costume crate and came up with a classic for Cora, Uncle Nathan's old dragon costume. Reed could not be satisfied with any of the choices from the spooky stash. He has had a sole choice for weeks...the Red Power Ranger. NO EXCEPTIONS. Promising nothing, we headed to the Greenville Thrift Shop in hopes of finding something last minute that would satisfy him.

Unbelievably, they had one...although many sizes too big. The sewing magician Granny took in the arms and legs and, voila, we had the happiest kid at the event. Correction, TWO of the happiest kids at the event...Cora has discovered candy and they had music, so she was also in heaven. (video below)

Let's do this!

Booths and booths of candy!

Our little witch and Frankenstein

We ran into my friend Aundi. This is Reed and her son, Ethan (7).

Finally, one of the highlights for me was seeing Cora boogie down in her costume. The girl really likes to move. I am really glad Bob captured this. She was starting to draw a crowd.

Halloween Recap

Let me first begin by stating that these forthcoming posts are long overdue, but in my mind, it's better late than never. So here it is...Halloween...about 6 weeks late. Reed was just too adorable for me not to share these photos.

We started the Halloween festivities with a playdate with all the neighborhood kids. Last year there were fewer kids in the play group and they were a lot less mobile. We took a cute shot of all the kids sitting side by side on the couch. We tried to recreate that image again this year to no avail. They all seem to have their own agendas these days, which usually does not include sitting nicely for any extended period of time.

Reed, the dragon, with his buddy Benjamin, the turkey.

Reed making a Halloween afternoon stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Trick-or-treating on our block with Josiah, the bulldozer driver.

Happy Halloween

Friday night trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
They loved seeing their little penguin grandson!

Saturday night we had some friends over for dinner and the kids dressed up one last time. The adorable little guys are Benjamin(chicken), Reed(penquin), Josiah(scarecrow), and Quinton(lion.)